I'm still tripping over last night's episode - but I think that was the author's intent.

Synopsis
In an odd, out-of-body-like experience, Peggy goes off on the Heinz bean executive. She has a stiff drink, goes to see a movie (Born Free, I think), smokes some weed, and pleasures a guy. Presumably after the alcohol and marijuana wear off, she goes back to work like it never happened.

Don and Megan take off work to go see the flagship Howard Johnson's in upstate New York. Megan eats a surreal amount of orange sherbert in just a few seconds, they have a surreal fight, Don drives off and like a nightmare Megan disappears. Don looks for her all night, then they fight like crazy people again at home.

Roger and Jane go to an LSD party sponsored by her psychiatrist and go on a wild trip, just like the whole episode. The LSD loosens their tongues enough for them to realize their relationship is over. The closing shot of their post-LSD trip is eerily similar to Megan and Don's, post-fight scene.

I loved the way they handled Rogers's acid trip. Peggy tried to channel Don with the Heinz people right down to guzzling booze after she failed. I loved her grimace after the drink. She's no Don Draper although she keeps trying with the way she has her boyfriend under control.
Excellent episode.

Well, this was one of the first episodes where the late 60s setting of Mad Men and my early 70s childhood are starting to overlap, since I loved the various HoJo scenes. Those took me back to many a childhood trip (including one to Plattsburgh, actually[1]).

Interested in seeing what happens with Heinz, but I suspect Peggy will actually pull something off here. A little interesting to see her fall flat on her face with the arrogance approach to Heinz, since she lifted most of that from Don himself.

Meghan telling Don to call his mother. Ouch.

And entirely too much green screen, but that's hard to avoid when some of the plot is about driving and Hojos, and there just aren't any current HoJos you could film at.

[1] Some of the HoJo's thing makes sense. 1965 was a *huge* expansion year for them, with most of that happening in the Adirondacks, including a new flagship Hojos in Plattsburgh.... but the location they showed, while a perfect Hojo's recreation from the 1960s, wasn't quite correct for what one of their "Concept 65" flagship places looked like. But again, there's limited access to reconstruction material for filming...

I loved it, and I laughed all the way through it, except for the end when the marriage was clearly over. That's always sad, no matter how it happens. It's always hard.

This has got to be one of the most inventive Mad Men seasons ever. Roger on LSD - flower power will soon be upon him..... Nehru jackets are next!

At first, I thought this was going to be a Peggy centric episode, what with her screwing up and then screwing of a different sort later on. But the fight was so well done, it changed the flow of the episode.

And, so much for a "happy" Don Draper - I think I commented on a previous thread that he'd find a way to screw it up, and he's well on his way.

What an episode. So much happened, it was incredible. I too really enjoyed the HoJo scenes. That really brought me back.

I'll admit it threw me for a loop, I had to sit back and then reassess what I had seen in the first act after they started to go back and retell the story.

Loved, LOVED Roger on LSD and the way it affected him, but it was chilling to see his card when they showed the closeup, I never really thought about it, but it made sense. Musical Vodka bottle? the truth, adored them all.

The Peggy storyline was a hard one to accept, they really did give her the hardest storyline, she's trying to follow in Don's footsteps, but doesn't have his overconfidence, and then to get hit with the Ginsberg sub-plot, wow, I didn't see that coming at all.

__________________"There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out."

You have to be a fan or from that era to recognize right away the reference to Dr Leary. Best time piece show I have ever watched.

I definitely caught that reference. In reading the wiki for Timothy Leary, it says that after he was fired from Harvard, he operated out of an estate in Poughkeepsie during that time, so that must be where Jane and Roger went. I'm surprised Roger wasn't grumbling more about the distance they had to travel.

According to that wiki, G. Gordon Liddy raided the estate and arrested Leary in 1966, so I was half expecting Jane and Roger's evening to end this way.

I definitely caught that reference. In reading the wiki for Timothy Leary, it says that after he was fired from Harvard, he operated out of an estate in Poughkeepsie during that time, so that must be where Jane and Roger went. I'm surprised Roger wasn't grumbling more about the distance they had to travel.

The host of the party was just Jane's psychiatrist and her husband, not Dr Leary. And the party was just a modest cab drive away. Roger telling Dr Leary that his product sucked was rhetorical.

The host of the party was just Jane's psychiatrist and her husband, not Dr Leary. And the party was just a modest cab drive away. Roger telling Dr Leary that his product sucked was rhetorical.

I don't think so. Why would they refer to Dr. Leary, who was conducting "turn on" parties within driving distance of Manhattan in this exact time period, if they didn't mean it was the actual Dr. Leary?

I loved the juxtaposition at the end of the episode, where Don is just beginning to realize that his life is about to get much less enjoyable, and Roger, who has just divested himself of a tortuous relationship, walks in and says, "I have an announcment. It's going to be a beautiful day!"

Roger's trip was the best part of this episode. His soon to be ex-wife is a great looking lady, the best looking woman on Mad Men.

The good thing about fights back then is that you could storm off and not have to deal with the other person for a while. Nowadays, Don's and Megan's cell phonea, IM, email, Twitter and Facebook accounts would have been blowing the whole internet up. Both of their relationship statuses would have been changed to "Single" five minutes after Don drove away.

I have a suspicion that Don's going to beat the crap out of Megan one day.

Also this year the previews have given zero away. It is like Weiner knows he has to cut together a preview but does not want to give stuff away so he just has people looking at each other or saying hello. It is very strange.

__________________
"It's not stealing if you need it. And you need it." - Inignot

I had no clue what a Howard Johnson's was before seeing this. After seeing it was just a diner/hotel with a pool I was cracking up that this was such a big deal. If I were his wife I'd be pissed for dragging me there for the weekend.

I had no clue what a Howard Johnson's was before seeing this. After seeing it was just a diner/hotel with a pool I was cracking up that this was such a big deal. If I were his wife I'd be pissed for dragging me there for the weekend.

At the time, they were considered quite swanky, as you could tell by the reactions of all the characters when presented with the idea of driving upstate to visit a HoJo for the weekend.

I remember stopping at them on family road trips and being in awe of the 'cocktails' and adults drinking at the bar. We stopped at one in particular in PA and my older brother actually bought a package of condoms in the bathroom. I am not sure if he knew what they were, but I didn't until a few years later - just that they made my mom upset.

I do think Megan is right. Don is treating her like a wife not an employee. He needs to stop that. Well...if he can. He may not be able to rethink his brain.

Oh and I have had that argument with a girlfriend and left her at a location. It was a flashback and it never ends well. I learned a long time ago never ever leave a women somewhere by driving away mad...it just makes it worse.

__________________
"It's not stealing if you need it. And you need it." - Inignot

I had no clue what a Howard Johnson's was before seeing this. After seeing it was just a diner/hotel with a pool I was cracking up that this was such a big deal. If I were his wife I'd be pissed for dragging me there for the weekend.

At least from my own early childhood of the 70s.... There were a lot of really bad and dismal motor lodges, motels, etc in that era (think "Psycho"), and Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson were a shockingly good, affordable, and consistent product for the era. When we stayed at Hojos it wasn't terribly fancy, but it was neat, clean, and had decent amenities (pools, ice cream, and clam strips for the kids, and cocktail bars for the adults) for the price.

The host of the party was just Jane's psychiatrist and her husband, not Dr Leary. And the party was just a modest cab drive away. Roger telling Dr Leary that his product sucked was rhetorical.

Yes. Manhattan to Poughkeepsie and back, while still tripping, would have been a whole other story. I assumed the LSD came courtesty of Jane's doctor, who, as a psychiatrist would have had access to the hallucinogenic.

Where is that place that the HoJo interiors were shot at? Is it just one of those dead places that Hollywood rents? The exterior felt CGIish to me, but then again I'm on analog cable still so I'm not the best one to judge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brianric

You have to be a fan or from that era to recognize right away the reference to Dr Leary. Best time piece show I have ever watched.

Doesn't everybody know the Moody Blues song "Legend of a Mind?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by mwhip

And to think in week 1 people on here were debating if she got fat. Certainly that is settled now.

Yeah, that thread came to mind the moment she came on screen... As Roger says, she is beautiful.

Where is that place that the HoJo interiors were shot at? Is it just one of those dead places that Hollywood rents? The exterior felt CGIish to me, but then again I'm on analog cable still so I'm not the best one to judge.

In the comments to Alan Sepinwall's recap, there is quite a bit of debate about whether this was shot at the same diner as the diner scenes from Pulp Fiction, but it was then concluded that that restaurant was demolished in the 90s and that this was shot at Rod's Grill in Arcadia, CA.

... but the location they showed, while a perfect Hojo's recreation from the 1960s, wasn't quite correct for what one of their "Concept 65" flagship places looked like. But again, there's limited access to reconstruction material for filming...

Maybe your memory is flawed.
From what I understand, Matthew Weiner pays meticulous attention to detail from the time period. He gets proper labels for things like an Aspirin bottle in the background, as well as the music. A couple of episodes ago he wanted a certain piece of music playing in the background, but pulled it because that particular song wasn't actually released until a couple of months after the scene he was shooting was to have occurred. So I would expect that his research team would have been as accurate as possible in constructing the HoJos set.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaszeta

The host of the party was just Jane's psychiatrist and her husband, not Dr Leary. And the party was just a modest cab drive away. Roger telling Dr Leary that his product sucked was rhetorical.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevdogAZ

I don't think so. Why would they refer to Dr. Leary, who was conducting "turn on" parties within driving distance of Manhattan in this exact time period, if they didn't mean it was the actual Dr. Leary?

Roger calling the professor "Dr. Leary" was like the graphic artist at SCDP calling Megan "Jethro" earlier in the episode.

In the end credits, it showed the character names for the psychiatrist and her hubby as Catherine and Sandy Orcutt, respectively. Dr. Leary was a big name in the news, and although he was an outspoken advocate of "tuning in, turning on and dropping out", I'm sure other psychologists/psychiatrists followed his lead with their friends and patients.

Quote:

Originally Posted by betts4

I do think Megan is right. Don is treating her like a wife not an employee. He needs to stop that. Well...if he can. He may not be able to rethink his brain.

Megan is rebelling against Don's stereotypical treatment of women, just as Women's Lib will be starting to garner headlines.

I also saw the similarities between Don and Megan's scene on the floor and Roger and Jane on the floor. Earlier, there was also the transition of Peggy's face lit with the warm glow of the lighter while getting a light of a cigarette to her talking about the warm glow of the campfire to the Heinz execs.

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Ok, just throwing this out there-pure speculation-Megan almost got a little carsick, and said the taste of the sherbet was off - tasted like perfume to her-maybe she is pregnant?

And what about Ginsburg's telling Peggy about being born in a concentration camp? And that his "father" is not his father, but a man who found him in a Swedish orphanage at 5 years old? What a story-if it is true. Why would he lie about something like that?

It would be amazing-to be born in the camps, and be smuggled out to safety. And maybe his father is his father. I did expect the dad to correct Peggy when she called him "Ginsburg" - you know, say "His name is...(whatever), not Ginsburg..." I love that character, the dad-so sweet!